Haste and Leisure
by Gamma Orionis
Summary: A collection of entirely unrelated drabbles for Speed Drabbles for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Forum. I: Tom and Helena, II: Lucius and Alice, III: Rodolphus and Narcissa
1. Tom and Helena

_Prompts:_ _Floating, torn_

)O(

Tom should have asked the Grey Lady about death.

It was a subject constantly on his mind when he saw her floating towards him, no matter how he tried to think instead of her mother's diadem. He could not see beyond her insubstantiality, her nature as a creature trapped between his world and the next, the unknown one that was meant to come after death.

There were questions he ached to ask her, questions about the nature of death that she could answer in ways no living person could. She should have been the perfect opportunity to learn about it. A boy less proud than he would not have hesitated, would have begged her for knowledge of what happened after death to alleviate the terrible unknown.

But Tom could not bring himself to ask. He knew that Helena would have given all the answers she could if he only demanded them of her, for she was free with information as long as he continued to provide her with a semblance of a sympathetic ear. And yet he hesitated still, for he was torn between wanting to know, and some deep and primal fear that what she said would only frighten him away further. If she spoke of Hellfire, or of a great and sucking void that stripped away all ego – both of which he feared after death – then he would only have his nightmare confirmed, and be no closer to avoiding it.

He did not ordinarily condone living in ignorance, but he feared tumbling into madness if he learned that he really was undeniably _right_ about what happened after death.

)O(

_Fin_


	2. Lucius and Alice

_Prompts: Bright, shadow, meticulous_

)O(

Lucius suspected that Alice Longbottom saw him as something of a project. He was _fixable_, and it was her intention – so he thought – to drag him out of the shadowed recesses where he hid from morality and transform him into a glowing example of human goodness.

She was bright and shining and full of _joie de vivre_ even in these most miserable of times. That was not to say that she was an optimistic creature, no – Alice was pragmatic, realistic, not overly given to idealism. But as many times as she came face-to-face with wizards far darker than Lucius, and acts far more sinister than any he could ever have imagined himself committing, she maintained a philosophy espousing the innate goodness of humanity. Certainly it was true that many a wizard did not act in manners that suggested any sort of goodness, but Alice maintained, no matter how many times she encountered evil, that it was the exception, not the rule, and, moreover, that proper attention and meticulous care could exorcise it from a person's soul.

Her firmness on this matter was slightly amusing, slightly tragic, for though Alice was very well-acquainted with evil, she had never been as close to it as Lucius had, never called someone who was taken by darkness a friend, never felt stirrings of it within herself. Lucius did not try to dissuade her from her philosophy, but neither did he give himself over to her ideas about treatment, for he knew better than to suspect that she held some miraculous cure for troublesome ethics.

)O(

_Fin_


	3. Rodolphus and Narcissa

_Prompts: Crush, willow, trouble_

)O(

Rodolphus was sent out onto the grounds of the Black's manor in search of Narcissa. She disappeared altogether too often for her family's liking, and though he thought that her own future husband would be better-suited to the task of finding her and drawing her back to the manor than Rodolphus was, Cygnus had given him an order to find her, and Cygnus's orders were better not outright defied.

She was not in the chapel, not strolling along the well-kept garden paths – indeed, he did not see any sign of her until he ventured down a hill at the far side of the grounds and found her sitting upon the bank of the little creek that traversed the edge of the Black's property.

She looked quite picturesque sitting there, the stream glittering in front of her and her back resting against a willow tree. Her head was bent and dappled light gleamed off her pale hair and shoulders. Someone might have painted her, for how pleasingly otherworldly she looked, and how well arranged she seemed.

"Cissa."

Her head jerked up, and the whole illusion was crushed. Narcissa's face was still Narcissa's, pinched and pointed, unmistakably _Rosier_, not some image of fairy-tale beauty.

_And yet infinitely more beautiful than any fairy._

"You're wanted at the manor." His voice caught and scratched a little. "Your father sent me to find you."

Narcissa closed her eyes and for the briefest of moments, her mouth twisted into a terrible grimace, but then she stood a little unsteadily on the uneven bank.

"What did he send you for?" she asked, in a voice as petulant and earthly as ever he had heard it.

Rodolphus shook his head and lifted one shoulder slightly to indicate that he did not know. He had no business being here, intruding on whatever Narcissa might have been reflecting upon, and there were some people who might have thought it troublesome that a young man and a young woman who were both promised to others were outside on the grounds with no supervision. Why, _anything_ might have happened...

And yet they were out here together, not only with Cygnus's permission, but at his insistence...

Narcissa brushed past Rodolphus, up the swell and back towards the manor, and he stood frozen for a long time, staring at the place where she had sat, and _thinking_.

)O(

_Fin_


End file.
